Res. No. 725

Resolution condemning the recent Holocaust denial conference held in Iran.

By Council Members Nelson, Gerson, Avella, Brewer, Fidler, Gennaro, James, Recchia Jr., Sanders Jr., Vallone Jr., Weprin and Oddo

                     Whereas, In March of 1933 the newly installed Nazi dictatorship of the German Reich opened the Dachau Concentration camp, the first of what would eventually be a string of killing centers throughout Central and Eastern Europe; and

                     Whereas, Between 1933 and 1945 at least 10 million innocent men, women and children, including an estimated 6 million Jews, were slaughtered in what is now called the Holocaust; and

                     Whereas, This brutal, state organized attempt to exterminate an entire race of people is one of the darkest and most shameful events in the history of humanity; and

                     Whereas, In the decades following the defeat of Nazi Germany, a small but vocal group of anti-Semites and hate mongers have spread the myth that the Holocaust did not happen and was in fact some sort of “hoax” concocted by the Jewish people with the assistance of friendly Western governments; and                     

                     Whereas, Despite voluminous documentary evidence detailing the horrific crimes of the Nazi regime, including eyewitness accounts from both concentration camp inmates and camp guards, the records of the Allied powers that liberated the Nazi death camps, and detailed records and orders produced by the Nazi regime itself, the outrageous claims of the Holocaust deniers have continued unabated; and

                     Whereas, It is illegal to deny the Holocaust in many European countries, including Austria, Germany and France; and

                     Whereas, In December of 2006, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has already angered Jews around the world with his inflammatory remarks about the State of Israel, held an unprecedented, State-sponsored conference of Holocaust deniers in the Iranian capital city of Tehran; and

                     Whereas, President Ahmadinejad’s hate filled conference outrageously supports the historical distortions and outright lies of Holocaust deniers by providing a government sponsored platform for them; and

                     Whereas, It is in the interests of all New Yorkers to protest the sort of hatred and ignorance that the recent Tehran conference fed upon; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York condemns the recent Holocaust denial conference held in Iran.

JN

LS# 2313

1/25/07